Posts Tagged ‘Revival’

Signs of pride and prosperity were evident all over Williamsport and the gorgeous northern Pennsylvania countryside around it. Friendly, happy people greeted us. New cars, trucks, hotels and restaurants sparkled in a clean, bustling downtown. New roofs topped barns and houses, while late model tractors worked the fields. Former dirt roads are now paved.

Men and women again have high-paying jobs, young people are coming back instead of moving away, their salaries are supporting other businesses and jobs, and many are taking college programs in oilfield technical and business specialties, Vince Matteo told me. As president and CEO of the Williamsport/Lycoming County Chamber of Commerce, he’s witnessed the transformation.

“98 percent of the change has been positive,” he says. Contributions to United Way are increasing each year, county infrastructure has improved enormously, and environmental impacts are minimal.

Visits to several Anadarko Petroleum drilling and fracking sites explained why. The operations are far more high-tech than what I had seen previously on rigs in the Rocky Mountains, off the Louisiana and California coasts, and last fall in Alberta’s oil sands region. Hydraulic fracturing was first employed in Kansas in 1947. But steadily improved fracking technology is now combined with computers, down-hole sensors and microseismic instruments. Drilling equipment, lets crews send a bit 6,000 feet down and 8,000 feet laterally into Marcellus Shale formations – and end up within three feet of their intended target!

The operations are conducted from atop a multi-layered felt and impermeable plastic pad, surrounded by a berm, to keep unlikely spills from contaminating farm and forest land. Multiple wells are drilled from a single pad and “kicked out” horizontally in various directions. The drilling rig is skidded a short distance to four or five more locations around the pad, the entire array is fractured at high pressure, and short wellheads are installed to collect natural gas and send it to local and interstate pipeline networks.

A nearby impoundment is also lined with plastic to hold water for fracturing operations. Topsoil removed to prepare the pad and pond is stored nearby. As operations are finished, the land is reclaimed, topsoil is replaced, and local grasses, flowers and shrubs are planted, to create meadows for deer and wild turkeys –- or anything else the landowners prefer. To launch 20-40 years of hydrocarbon production from a 15,000-acre (23-square-mile) area requires barely 2% surface disturbance, most of it for just a few months.

Once the work is completed, the area quietly and unobtrusively produces decades of energy and revenue for farmers, wildlife organizations, hunting groups, and local, state and federal treasuries.

Hydraulic fracturing takes place some 5,500 feet (almost four Empire State Buildings) below the water table. To prevent groundwater contamination, pipe penetrating the first seven hundred feet is surrounded by layers of steel casing and specialized cement. During the drilling and fracturing process, even rainwater collected from the drill pad is saved and used. Some of the water used to fracture the shale is also recovered during gas production; this “flowback” water itself is filtered, treated and reused.

The hydraulic fracturing process requires some 2.0-4.2 million gallons of water per well, but fresh or brackish water works equally well.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has called for the revival of the Soviet-era physical evaluation program that required all schoolchildren to pass fitness tests.

Putin, a judo enthusiast and a regular swimmer, said Wednesday that the restoration of GTO, the Russian acronym for Ready for Labor and Defense, would teach children to “to stand up for themselves, their family and, in the final run, the Fatherland.”

GTO, which was introduced in 1931 under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s rule, required all schoolchildren to regularly pass physical training tests. Those managing to qualify would receive silver- or gold-colored badges.

I can’t believe Michael Bloomberg and FLOTUS haven’t thought of that. Well, at least not as mandatory… yet.

Whoa! Hold on there! That correct biblical term refers to questionable details of one’s birth. The Assemblies of God declare that they are born of God, when in reality, their father is the devil. (See John 8:44-47)

The Devil causes doubt…doubt about Jesus, doubt about yourself, doubt about others. Christ offers Hope in all things.

When God called me to the ministry, I was immediately sucked into the Assemblies of God. I wondered why most of their preachers stiffened up when I met them and they showed visible discomfort. Simple, I had the Spirit of God in me and they had the spirit of Satan in them which greatly conflicted.

On the other hand, I have met many, many true devoted men of God, some in very high position, like the late Adrian Rogers, who received me warmly and spent time talking with me. It was a comfortable, refreshing time.

When Elizabeth was pregnant with John, her cousin Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus, came to visit, When they met, John, in his mother’s womb, was baptized in the Holy Spirit and “leaped in the womb.” St. Luke 1:41. Their spirits were totally compatible.

The late Judson Cornwall known as “The Father of The Faith,” the most devoted man of God I have ever met, with the sweetest Spirit of God within him one could ever find, was recognized as the greatest Bible teacher of all time. He was the author of countless books.

Once while he was in a revival week at a church in Binghamton, New York, he got up early to meet me for breakfast at 5 AM at the airport where I was changing planes. He wanted to spend time with me and fellowship. How many preachers would do that while in the midst of a demanding Revival Week?

Because he was a TRUE man of God, the Assemblies tried to find an excuse to kick him out. They had earlier been ticked that he wrote a book titled, “Satan Diversified of All Authority.” With the distinct spirit of Satan within them, the AG looked for any excuse to get him out of there.

They found that excuse in an astonishing way. Rev. Cornwall, who speaks all over the nation, was asked by a Methodist church to teach Bible for a week, which he agreed to do.

For THAT he was dismissed with the charge that he was to speak only to Assemblies of God churches! How Interesting, What I saw in the Bible was that we are to take the Gospel to ALL creatures. It did not read, ‘Take the Gospel ONLY to Assemblies of God preachers.’

Judson Cornwall had the Spirit of God within him, the leaders of the AG had the Spirit of Satan within them which, as usual, created a huge conflict. So they HAD to kick him out and try to destroy him. They didn’t succeed.

This is why 1 Peter 4:17 says, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God….” And will it ever come upon those phony ‘houses of God.’

There is a long list of true men of God who were kicked out of the Assemblies of God who next tried to destroy their ministries.

President Obama spoke at the University of North Carolina today about keeping lower interest rates for students, and the speech had a bit of a “debt revival” feel to it:

Obama told the students that since they were born, tuition and fees at colleges have doubled.

“And that forces students like you to take on a lot more loans, there are fewer grants, you rack up a lot more debt,” Obama stated.

“Can I get an Amen for that?” he asked the crowd who cheered, “AMEN!”

“Now, the average student who borrows to pay for college, now graduates with with about $25,000 in debt, that’s the average, he added,

“Some have more,” he said. “Can I get an Amen for that?”

“AMEN!” the crowd who cheered.

“Because some folks have a lot more debt like that,” Obama chuckled, as another person in the crowd shouted, “AMEN!”

Amazingly, I think that last “amen” came from an American who hasn’t even been born yet.

If these students are counting on Obama and the Dems (along with a sizable chunk of the rest of Washington for that matter) to be the ones to deliver them from a life of insurmountable debt, they are in for some serious dissapointment. “OMG Tiffany, we’ve got to do something about our out of control student debt — let’s ask the people who say you have to spend money to keep from going bankrupt for some advice!”

What the students didn’t hear:

“In 2007 I missed two votes to extend the student loan bill that I now want you to believe is the most important things I’ve ever promoted. Can I get an amen?”

I’ve long supported the campaign to “Move Your Money” from the giant, insolvent banks who take billions in bailouts and use the money to speculate and to corrupt the system to smaller banks. See this and this.

Given this new evidence, it would seem to be pretty clear that Kagan should recuse herself from the case on Obamacare. Yet, it also seems pretty clear that she won’t. Unfortunately, it is up to the Supreme Court Justice herself to determine whether she should be recused. This is from an article in the Daily Caller:

Newly released documents reveal Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan was more involved with President Obama’s health-care law than she disclosed previously. The documents likely will lead to a revival of questions about whether the Kagan should recuse herself from future cases.

Specifically, the documents show that Kagan was involved with crafting the legal defense of the Affordable Care Act in her role as solicitor general, before her appointment to the bench. The Media Research Center and Judicial Watch obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that was filed in February 2011.

In an email dated Jan. 8, 2010, then-Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal sent an email to Senior Counsel Brian Hauck and Deputy Attorney General Thomas Perrelli that indicates Kagan played a key role in coming up with a legal defense. . . .

“God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him.” — Acts 2:24

What started out as another beautiful weekend in May, exactly one week before Mother’s Day, would suddenly turn into a tragic loss of life. Who would ever expect that by the end of a bright and cheery spring day, a family’s happiness would be shattered forever, and a brother’s life would be taken away. It wasn’t just my own family who would feel the loss and devastating pain, but others involved in a senseless tragedy that should have never taken place.

As usual, my brother and I were up very early. We enjoyed taking walks together before the sun lit up the sky to warm the chill of a California morning. It was our habit to have our own devotions together as we read the scriptures before attending church services.

Both Mark and I were blessed with a similar sense of humor. Twins share a very unique relationship. He was the other part of me. We had been laughing and giggling while we chit-chatted about each other’s love life. Everything was light and breezy, and we were just two typical young people barely reaching our twenties.

I remember that very same day looking at my brother as he sat close together in church with the love of his life. Susie and Mark planned to marry after college. Susie was a delightful person, with the prettiest smile and with long, bouncy, strawberry blonde hair that graced her lovely face. The week before, she was baptized in front of the entire congregation. It was a celebration. Susie was a special gift, and we often thought how blest to have her become part of our immediate family.

Our church was in the midst of holding a Revival outreach to the outlying communities. Everyone was excited and pleased to see new people — young and old were attending the meetings. They wanted to learn about Jesus and His imminent Second Coming.

Mark was very devoted in doing God’s work. The day he died, many of his college buddies had been in church because he invited them to hear the presentation on the Book of Revelation. Some had never considered putting Jesus in their lives. But Mark’s witness was very compelling. My brother was a deacon. One of his jobs was to secure the doors after services. We waited for him before sitting down to a wonderful afternoon dinner. Mark and Susie decided to take a scenic drive right after they finished eating.

I was so very proud of all my brother’s accomplishments. He was an honor student. His outgoing personality touched the hearts of many young people with the love he felt for his Savior.

It was sadly ironic. Within that same week, our family would have to make final arrangements. My parents thought it best to have a closed casket at Mark’s service. His face was severely disfigured by the impact of the collision.